Leaving a Legacy: Sin and Prayer

It felt like the 9 months I was pregnant seemed to just crawl by (partly because I was miserably sick), and now Mia is 9 months old!! What?!? In the past 2 weeks she has figured out how to get in a sitting position from being on her tummy, do the army crawl on her tummy, and cut her first tooth! Oh, and I also "caught" her saying Momma a few times - but not on purpose yet! I look forward to her 9 month check up next week to see how long she is - she already hangs her feet off the car seat. And I guess a "first" that you don't get too proud about is her revealing the anger she has in her heart! For a baby that never cries, she sure knows how to express her anger! It is a unique experience to witness her sinful nature first hand when up until this point it was hard to imagine her doing anything wrong. We pray for Mia daily for her to know the Lord at a very young age!! It was also a reality check to see one of my own weaknesses brought out in my child. I am very quick to anger and it is a sin I have always struggled with - one of those things that needs constant improvement even after progress is made. However, I am pretty sure that Mia has not "learned" this behavior from me at this point. Is it really possible for generational sin to pass without it being a learned behavior?

I know the time we have to mold and disciple Mia is short! And in that time I anticipate God to mold and disciple me along the way. We are learning and growing together and I simply treasure every minute I have with Mia. As parenting gets a little harder and I am challenged with her sin bumping up against my own sin, I pray for grace in each moment - to respond and teach according to scripture. The "tricky" part is that I need to be covered in scripture daily. I say tricky because finding time for just me and the Lord has proved difficult. It seems as though I am constantly praying - but to sit and open the Bible has been a different story. Life will only get more complicated and increased demands of my time - this is by far the easy stage. So if I cannot swing it now and make it a habit, how will I make room for it later? There are phone apps and online devotions, but there is just something about having a Bible sitting in your lap! As though God is jumping off the pages.